"Sex toys, most of them, are designed to help women achieve orgasm," says writer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Phil Harvey. "The idea that you could openly sell things that help women achieve orgasm is pretty new."

Harvey runs the adult-toy company Adam & Eve and is the head of DKT International, a nonprofit that promotes family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention in underdeveloped countries.

An ardent libertarian (and contributor to Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Reason TV), Harvey is also the author of several books, including 2001's The Government vs. Erotica, which documented his precedent-setting legal battles with state and federal law enforcement over the right to sell adult materials to willing customers.

His new book is Show Time, a psychological thriller that follows a group of reality TV participants struggling to survive a brutal winter on a remote island in Lake Superior. By turns reminiscent of The Hunger Games, Survivor, and Lost, Show Time is a wry and gripping commentary on voyeurism, mass media, and self-destruction.

Harvey sat down recently with Nick Gillespie to discuss why sex and violence will always be integral to the arts and how Americans have become more comfortable in their pursuit of sensual pleasure.